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So, that reunion of TFI Friday last night was a reminder of why I never watched it first time round: it's a programme that looks like everyone involved is having tremendous fun, rather than a programme which is tremendous fun.
Also: the Gallagher/Who 'supergroup' felt more like the deputy head joining the school band for the last song of the evening.
TFI Friday is back for what is, effectively, its reunion gig this week. But will it be good TFI Friday, where you'd get a decent band and something inventive? Or will it be bad TFI Friday, when it had passed the point that it had forgotten it had viewers and approached its tasks with an attitude of 'if we're having fun, then the audience will enjoy us having fun, right?'
Your finger is hovering over the Record button.
But which will it be?
Which will it be, NME?
TFI Friday will return for a one-off live special at 9pm next Friday (June 12), hosted by Chris Evans. A TFI spokesman recently confirmed to The Sun that Gallagher and Daltrey will perform 'My Generation' as part of a supergroup featuring The Lightning Seeds' Ian Broudie and former Oasis drummer (and Ringo Starr's son) Zak Starkey.Ah. Thanks for the clarification.
The other great Sheffield band of their generation, and deserving more than just being a footnote in articles about Richard Hawley, let's spend some time looking at Longpigs.
Somewhat surprisingly, Crispin Hunt doesn't merit his own entry in Wikipedia. Even Geraldine Newman has an entry in Wikipedia; why Hunt's time leading the Longpigs and subsequent career working with the good, the bad, and Newton Faulkner since doesn't make him significant enough isn't clear.
So, after four solid years of singles, which, without ever quite making it to the toppermost of the poppermost managed a fairly distinguished series of chart placings, it all just crumbled away. Dee Boyle quit; their label imploded; America had decided it didn't really care for British bands that much.
It's astonishing that we're able to generate bands as good as Longpigs, and then more-or-less ignore them. We're like people signing up for allotments and only realising we never went back to harvest them when the council sends us the letter telling us they're taking the land back.
Let's kick off with She Said from TFI Friday. If ever you need to define a British band by its time, place, and never-quite-living-up-to-potential, the first question to ask is 'did they appear on TFI Friday?'
Buy
The Sun Is Often Out
Mobile Home
Longpigs online
Last FM
Spotify
More to come this weekend
Crispin Hunt on Never Mind The Buzzcocks
On And On
The Frank Sonata
Lost Myself
Jesus Christ Live
Tendresse
Another TFI appearance, from May 1997, with The World Is Flat:
[Part of the Echobelly weekend]
A quick scrabble round some desleeperbloked Louise Wener stuff.
First, here's Lou playing Poker with the bloke out the Barclaycard Advert and the bloke out the Pimms advert. Presumably she must have creamed them, which would explain why they did the adverts. If you don't want us to spoil the result, don't worry, it's got something to do with cards: Not embeddable, unfortunately
Next, a brief snatch of Louise pre-guest seating on Shooting Stars, Vic and Bob's welcome-wearing-out gameshow:
Finally, her doing what she does every bit as well as playing snap for money and standing on a revolving disc - singing, inevitably, on TFI, doing Life's A Gas:
[Part of Sleeper weekend]
The number of times Sleeper appeared on TFI Friday, you might almost suspect that Chris Evans had a small part of his heart that would, forever, be at Lou Wener's beck and call. This is from Christmas 1996 - we're guessing, based on Evans' gear, although it could also be from the period when he started to believe he was Lord Of Entertainment.
[Part of Sleeper Weekend]
Although McAlmont and Butler are - we think - still notionally a going concern, Bernard continued to try other things. The idea seems to be to record with every band that's ever existed, in some way. Surprisingly, he's also squeezed in two solo albums.
From the first (1998's People Move On, this is A Change of Heart live on TFI Friday in 1998. And, apologies, this clip may contain significant quantities of Chris Evans:
[Part of Butler on Monday]
